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July 22, 1966 
Mr. Robert Fleet 
Box k, Route 1 
Lawrence, Kansas 
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Dear Bob: 
I hare gone over now in some detail the masses of data you 
have sent in during the last week or so. I am most impressed, 
you have clearly done a lot of work. This whole business of 
growth, development, incubation periods and so on, for various 
species of birds in the Central Pacific is going to become 
enormously useful ultimately in the analysis of many of the 
data we have collected during the past three years of the 
Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program. This is going to be 
particularly so when it comes to attempting to reconstruct 
reproductive cyeles of various species on islands where we 
have only been able to visit two or three times a year for only 
a few days at a time. 
In order to make these data more useful I think you would 
be well advised to prepare during the course of your detailed 
data analysis a brief working summary for each species which 
would permit a field man to extrapolate easily from data collected 
during a brief period on a given island. It would also be useful 
for you to prepare simple, careful, concise instructions as to 
what counts should he made and what measurements made of young 
birds of each species in order to obtain reasonable extrapolations 
about the duration of the breeding cycle of that species on a given 
island at a given time or season. 
In order to demonstrate the usefulness of this approach I 
think it would be highly desirable for you to analyze breeding 
cycles of one species throughout its distribution in our Central 
Pacific area of interest. These data for the species you select 
a year-to-year basis rather than averaged 
over the period of three years of observation. The data for the 
Southern Islands very likely for certain species anyway, does not 
fall out in an annual pattern, so annual averages cannot be used. 
If you have any questions about this particular application of 
your work drop me a line. I will be back in Washington on the 
13th or l4th of August and will be able to spend considerably 
